May 15, 2002 MnTC Oversight Committee Minutes

Minnesota State Colleges and Universities
Office of the Chancellor
MnSCU MnTC Oversight Committee
May 15, 2002, 9:30 a.m.
ETC
Meeting Minutes

Present: Jerry Johnson, Linda Lade, Craig Froke, Debra Japp, Joan Costello, Larry Oveson, Greg Mulcahy, Jean Evens, Betsy Ingram-Diver, Harry Weseloh, Alex Yard, James Pehler, Gregory Wright

1. Welcome and introductions

Craig Froke welcomed all attendees and introductions were made. Craig noted that a couple of students will be added as future members.

2. World Languages Recommendation

Linda Lade reported on the world languages joint meeting that was held on May 8, 2002 with four MnSCU faculty and four U of M faculty. The MnSCU MnTC Oversight Committee “Recommendation of Foreign Languages within the Minnesota Transfer Curriculum” document was presented by MnSCU faculty to the U of M faculty at this meeting. This document recommended that first and second year world languages be included in MnTC Goals 6 and 8. The result of the meeting is it is likely that the U of M will concur with including second year world language in Goal 8. However, the U of M will likely include in their agreement conditions for preparation requirements. Once this agreement is obtained the MnSCU Oversight Committee requests that continued dialogue be held with the U of M to include world languages in the following MnTC Goal areas: first year—Goal 8 (priority one), second year—Goal 6 (priority two) and first year—Goal 6 (priority three).

Larry Oveson reported that one of the two-year colleges has requested an assigned teaching field for American Sign Language and he believes this will have implications for transfer. The Oversight Committee feels that American Sign Language should not be considered a part of world languages and may be considered for inclusion in MnTC Goal 7. Further discussion will be needed on this.

3. Information Updates

Technical College General Education Review Process
Jerry Johnson reviewed the outcomes of the technical college MnTC course review process and 167 courses have been approved to date. The strengths of the existing review process include: faculty driven, brings faculty together from various types of MnSCU institutions, and facilitates obtaining course improvement feedback, etc. The concerns of the existing review process include: cost effectiveness, taking faculty off-campus away from their regular assignments, lack of faculty reviewer involvement prior to the review, course proposers not able to dialogue with reviewers during the review, etc. There are particular concerns that have been raised regarding courses that have been previously reviewed and were not approved in a second review. Jerry suggested that these concerns need to be considered as the Office of the Chancellor and faculty develop future review procedures.

A discussion ensued regarding revisiting the MnTC. Changes may need to be made, especially in the theme areas as needs for preparing the “educated student” may have changed since the 1990’s. This needs further discussion and the Oversight Committee may request that Linda Baer’s office lead a general education discussion and a review of the MnTC. Also, the U of M would need to be involved in such a discussion.

Faculty Discipline Meeting at Craguns
Discipline meetings were held at Craguns for the following areas: accounting, biology, chemistry, English, political science, psychology, and sociology. These meetings were co-facilitated by a MnSCU Office of the Chancellor representative, faculty member and transfer specialist.

The Oversight Committee recommends that follow-up activities be conducted for each of these discipline groups. It was suggested that small steering committees (perhaps three members) be established for each of these groups. Their charge would be to develop action plans based on the discipline reports summaries that were developed at the discipline meetings. Perhaps the facilitator for these planning groups could be the faculty facilitator that was used on April 19, 2002. Faculty leadership will determine who from the disciplines will be designated to facilitate and participate in these planning groups. A communication from faculty leadership needs to go out to faculty in the near future that informs them of steps that will be taken to follow-up on their recommendations.

Tentative goals for Collaboration and Transfer Office, 2002-03
A copy of the Program and Collaboration and Transfer Activities Planning list was distributed by Craig Froke. The following changes were recommended: hold the Economics discipline meeting FY 03 Spring Semester or later, and add the nursing discipline. The Oversight Committee should email any other recommendations to Linda, Craig or Jerry.

Comments were made that the goals are very ambitious and a request needs to be made by CTL advisory committee members to seek CTL human and financial resource assistance.

4. Review of the 2001 Higher Education Omnibus Bill and November 13, 2001 Memorandum by Dr. Linda Baer

Linda Baer’s November 13, 2001 memorandum and a letter from Senator Kinkel dated December 20, 2001 were reviewed by Craig Froke. In response to these communications, a concern was brought up that the MnTC Goal transfer interpretation had not been developed through faculty consultation.